How Does it Work?

Solar panels work every day, including overcast days!

They generate power from daylight, not heat or solar radiation. Solar panels, known as “collectors”, work best when on a south, westerly or easterly facing flat or pitched roof; with no buildings or trees obstructing the direct line of light.

If you have an East / West facing property then solar collectors can work just as well, however in order for the system to work efficiently we would need to increase the size of the collectors and split the system over both the East and West aspects.

A special non freezing and heat protected fluid silently circulates within a closed loop system through the panels and through your new cylinder. The fluid is a mixture or water and glycol and has beneficial properties such as a significantly lower freezing temperatures and higher boiling temperatures than water alone. The fluid that passes through the solar collector never actually touches the water that you use for the bathing and washing.

The suns energy heats the panels, which in turn heat the liquid, which in turn heats the water in your new cylinder. The colder fluid is then circulated back up to the solar panel to be heated again.

We will typically need to supply you with a new cylinder tank which has a twin coil heating system. One lower coil is heated by your solar panels, whilst the second upper coil is activated by your conventional boiler to top up your hot water as and when needed.

Naturally during winter solar thermal systems will perform less due to the limited solar resource available. Nevertheless, the winter contribution for solar thermal can still be as much as 30% on a well designed system.